brainstorms

Thursday April 21, 2005

nikon: a raw attitude

not sure what to make of nikon's recent chance to NEF (nikon's raw format) on D2X bodies [and i expect the change to come down to other cameras as well]. i am assuming it is the kind of temporary loss of consciousness that inflicts large corporations from time to time.

photoshopnews discussion is interesting to read. i think the issue that concerns me the most is ownership; i have noted in the past that unshared digital camera raw image files are the only way to guarantee image authenticity and ownership. what i had not thought about was that a raw format could be hijacked by the camera vendor, be obscured, and may be subject to manipulation i have no knowledge or control over.

this is seriously bothersome. it is easy to switch to a less stupid vendor, or to reverse engineer the format (some people think that is an inalienable right.) alas, that is just evading the issue. unless nikon recovers soon and fixes this, it should be challenged in the courts.

related links: dave coffin's excellent open-source dcraw converter
an interesting discussion on various aspects of this raw format: is NEF format truly lossless?
for future: adobe digital negative